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Video: Chef Teams With Fairfield's EAT To Warn Of Dangers Of Food Allergies

FAIRIFELD, Conn. --  End Allergies Together (E.A.T.), a nonprofit organization that funds research to help solve the growing food allergy epidemic, has joined forces with the award-winning ad agency BBDO to develop a public education campaign designed to advise people of all ages about the life-threatening dangers people with food allergies face every time they eat. 

Would you risk your life for a bite to eat? End Allergies Together opened a deadly food truck with celebrity chef Ming Tsai to find out. Text CURE to 80077 to donate to find a cure.

Photo Credit: End Allergies Together
Chef Ming Tsai

Chef Ming Tsai

Photo Credit: Will Langenberg

The PSA, “Could You EAT?" is now online and will begin airing in movie theaters nationwide on Friday, July 28. It stars James Beard Award-winning chef Ming Tsai and is dedicated to the memory of Oakley Debbs, an 11-year-old boy who lost his life to nut allergies and everyone who has lost their life to food allergies. 

E.A.T. has also launched a text-to-give campaign, in which individuals can text “CURE” to 80077 to donate to research for a cure.

Food allergy is a growing epidemic affecting 220 million people around the world. One in 12 children are diagnosed in the United States and the number is doubling nearly every decade. 

E.A.T. hopes the new PSA campaign will educate broader audiences about the dangers of food allergies and encourage people to donate to much-needed research to help the millions of people who are one bite away from a reaction.

“After watching this PSA, we hope people of all ages will understand the severity of food allergies and the risks those affected face every single time they eat,” said E.A.T. co-founder and Fairfield resident Elise Bates, whose 12-year-old daughter has a severe food allergy. 

“People with food allergies can look fine one minute but then be in a life-threatening situation the next, after just one bite of the wrong food. It’s terrifying. We need to find better treatments.”

BBDO created the “Could you EAT?” PSA to show people what it’s like to live with food allergies. The 60-second PSA portrays a poisonous food truck in New York City, and captures real-time reactions from people who learn that they can order dishes from this food truck that “could” be life-threatening. 

Chef Ming Tsai, known for his restaurants Blue Ginger and Blue Dragon in the Boston area, appropriately plays the chef of the food truck.

Tsai developed the Food Allergy Reference Book, a pioneering system that creates safeguards to help food-allergic people dine safely. For four years, Ming worked with Massachusetts Legislature to help write Bill S. 2701, which was signed into law in 2009. 

This groundbreaking legislation, the first of its kind in the U.S., requires local restaurants to comply with simple food allergy awareness guidelines. Eight major food allergens – milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and crustacean shellfish – are responsible for most of the serious food allergy reactions in the U.S.

The spot ends with a call-to-action to donate and help “fund the research to find the cures.”

Go HERE to watch the PSA or go to www.endallergiestogether.com.

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